When I'm Here No Longer
by notsurewhati'mdoingwithmylife
Summary: She didn't belong in LazyTown. That much was clear since day one. She could pretend; everyone else did. But he was always there, with an unsaid offer of a way out.
1. Chapter 1

This town was different.

Upon first glance one might notice how colourful the buildings were, compared to in other towns. It was remarkable how the buildings were able to stay clean enough for the colours to still stand out that much. The structure of the buildings were also unique, how the walls weren't straight and how most of the buildings didn't seem to have any right angles. It all seemed so strange. It certainly was different from New York.

"Adeline!" That familiar voice rang. "Oh! Adeline, there you are! My my, it has been a while!"

I turned around just in time to be enveloped into a huge hug. "C'mon Bessie, it's only been a few months."

Bessie was my aunt, and though I didn't see her too often, we were close. She came to visit me and my father every couple of months, but only during the times my mother had taken off. For the time being my mother was back with my father in New York, but that just meant a lot of fighting. With all that was going on my father thought it might be a good idea for me to not be in the house, and of course when Bessie offered up her place for me to stay my father bought me the first train ticket out. That must have sounded bad, but my father only wanted what was best for me, as did my mother, and they were just too stubborn to stay apart for good.

"Oh, I know that. But you're always growing! A couple months is a long time when you're as young as you are. Now let me take a look at you!"

I laughed to myself and took a step back. I spun around, and since my shirt was slightly too big it went out like the way dresses do in Disney movies. The motion messed up my hair, not that I did anything with it in the first place, so I brushed it back with my hands.

"You might have your mother's red hair, but you look just like your father when he was around your age. Your dress like him too, only more feminine." Bessie told me.

"The shirt was a handmedown, and the docs he bought me for my birthday." What she said was true, I did look a lot like him. I was wearing one of his old grey plaid shirts, which was probably the same age as me, a pair of faded skinny jeans, and a pair of doc martens. I've seen a few pictures of my dad from when he was a teenager, wearing this exact shirt. He said it was his favourite when it still fit him.

"It's more than just the clothes." Bessie said. "You have his eyes. His smile. You're tall like him."

Something seemed to draw her attention to my luggages, and suddenly her train of thought seemed to snap back on track. "Come on now, let's get you settled in."

Bessie helped me carry my luggages to her place, up a flight of stairs, and into a room she told me I'd be calling my own. "It's not too big, and I know it looks rather plain right now with the white walls, but we can stop by a store sometime soon and grab some paint if you like, or maybe you could hang up some posters, or-"

"Can I paint pictures on the walls?"

Bessie looked thrown off by the question, but only for a second. "Why of course dear! I never knew you liked art."

I was about to say something, but a knock on the front door interrupted me. Bessie left quickly to get the door, and not long after called me downstairs. When I got to the door I was greeted by a girl who looked to be around my age, thought she very well could have been older. It was hard to tell, the bright pink made her looked like a little girl.

"My name's Stephanie. My uncle told me you moved to LazyTown, and I was just wondering if you'd like me to show you around and introduce you to the other kids."

"Her uncle is the _mayor_ of LazyTown." Bessie informed me. I raised an eyebrow and gave her a knowing look. Every time Bessie came to visit me in New York she mentioned him, and it was enough for me to be able to tell she had a thing for him.

"Sure thing Stephanie. Sounds nice. I mean, if it's alright with Bessie." After saying that, we were both nudged outside by Bessie and told to have fun.

While Stephanie was giving me a tour of LazyTown I learned two things. One, LazyTown was very small, and I would definitely need to go out of town if I ever decided I wanted to buy new clothes before I went back to New York. The second thing was that the name of this town was a lie.

As Stephanie showed me around she would tell stories about things that had happened in LazyTown, and over half of them started with some kind of sport. Now I wasn't upset, I didn't mind sports every once in a while, but it seemed as though being lazy at all was frowned upon. That was where the problem lied. I wasn't the type of kid to always want to be outside playing a game of tag or riding my bike or whatever. I enjoyed my down time. I enjoyed sitting around and watching tv or listening to music. I wasn't to the point of taking naps in the middle of the day, but I enjoyed doing nothing.

"We have a superhero here, too. His name is Sportacus. All the kids adore him." She told me. "Was there a superhero where you came from?"

I rolled my eyes and chuckled. "Yeah, the police."

Stephanie smiled and nodded. "There wasn't one where I came from either, but I wasn't sure if they were maybe more common than I thought." She looked over towards a group of people and suddenly she seemed to look even happier than before, which I didn't think was possible. "There he is now!" She started walking faster towards the group, and I sped up to keep up with her.

When we got there I noticed that most of the group were kids around my age or younger, as well as a man in a blue suit with a number 10 on it. Upon further examination of the group, I realized how much I stood out. All of them were wearing such bright colours, which matched the theme of the buildings quite well. After Stephanie introduced me to all of them, I couldn't help but wonder if any of their parents actually wanted kids. Who on earth would name a baby any of those names?

"I'm Adeline." I introduced myself.

"Welcome to LazyTown, Adie." The man named Sportacus greeted.

I cringed at the nickname, and made it as clear as I could without being rude that no one was to call me that ever again. "So Sportacus, they tell me you're a superhero?" It didn't make sense. Superheroes aren't real, and if they were they certainly wouldn't spend their time playing sports with kids.

"Well, I prefer the term slightly-above-average hero." Sportacus stated.

"So, you don't have any actual 'super powers'." It was a statement, not a question, and I used air quotes to show how skeptical I really was.

"No, but he has a magic crystal that goes off every time someone needs help!" The boy I learned was named Ziggy said. He looked to be about two years younger than me, making him twelve, though he had the enthusiasm of an eight year old.

"You mean _my_ crystal!" Stingy added, sending a slight glare Ziggy's way, then a longing glance at the crystal.

"Well, what do you guys do for kicks around here?" I asked, changing the topic. I was told about how every year Sportacus preformed a sports related stunt at the annual Sportacular Spectacle, and they mentioned something about a Sports Day, but all they seemed to mention was sports. "Anything other than sports? Are there ever any parties?"

"Do you mean like birthday parties?" Stephanie asked. My facial expression seemed to tip her off that no, I didn't mean birthday parties. "Well, we don't only play sports. Sometimes we dance too." All of the kids nodded in agreement. "See? Watch!"

Stephanie and Sportacus showed me some dance to a song, Bing Bong or Bing Bang or something along those lines. The dance was cute, but they both seemed to be a bit old for something so childish. "Y'know, it's been nice meeting you guys, but I think I'm gonna call if a day and head home."

"It's only three in the afternoon." Ziggy pointed out.

"There's been a lot going on today."

As I was walking back to Bessie's I was stopped by an older man, who clearly seemed to be lacking in the hair department. "Oh, hello! You must be Adeline! I'm Milford, the mayor of LazyTown. Did Stephanie show you around?"

I couldn't help the face I made when he introduced himself. _This_ was the guy Bessie liked? I thought she'd have higher standards. "She did. She gave me the grand tour, and introduced me to everyone. I was just headed back to Bessie's now, I've a long day."

"You know dear, I think it might make her happy if you started calling it home."

"Right."

As soon as I got _home_ I was bombarded with questions. Why was I home so soon? Did I have fun? Did I meet all the kids? Did I meet Sportacus? How did I feel about Stephanie? Was there anything I needed? Was I sure I wanted to head to bed so soon?

"I'm not going to sleep, Bessie." I assured her. "I just need some quiet alone time. Maybe do some reading. I'm in the middle of this really good book right now."

It seemed weird to her, that much was clear, but she let me go to my room without further questioning. When I got upstairs to my room I looked through my luggages util I found _Lord of the Flies_. It was my dad's book. He told me he thought I would like it, and so far he was right. I was a little over half way done and so far I had no complaints. I was a fan of Jack's character more than any of the others, even though I knew that wasn't the point. I found the more "civilized" characters to be boring.

I didn't realize how long I had been reading until I was done the book. When I looked outside it was pitch black, and when I looked at the clock it was one in the morning. The pack of cigarettes I had felt like they were burning a hole in my pocket, and I was just now realizing I'd almost gone a whole day without one. I was tapping the pack idly while debating if I should go outside or not. I was skeptical about going out in the middle of the night, especially considering it was a new town, but it was just LazyTown. Stephanie introduced me to everyone in town. Most of the residents were children, and there's no way they'd be out this late.

I got out of the house no problem. Bessie was a deep sleeper. Even so, I walked for a bit until I got to some big wall. I figured it would probably be a good idea to go someone not near any houses, because I could already tell just by the looks of this town that everyone he frowned upon smoking. I leaned against the wall and pulled out my lighter, as well as a cigarette. The pack was half empty, but fortunately I had a few more in one of my luggages.

I lit the smoke and took a few drags, before I heard a voice coming from beside me. "Well, you're new."

When I turned to look at the person I was thrown off, but I tried not to let it show. Stephanie said she had introduced me to everyone, other than Stingy's father who was away on a business meeting. Something told me this wasn't him, though. "Who are you?"

"I'm sure Sportacus wouldn't approve of this. You being outside, all alone this time of night smoking a cancer stick. There could be some creeps out, you know."

"Well no offence, but I can't find myself caring about what that Blue Kangaroo thinks about my actions." I informed him, very matter-of-factly. "Any Stephanie introduced me to everyone. That is, except you. Gives me reason to believe you're the only creep around here."

I took a drag from my smoke while I waited for him to respond. I could hear the faint sound of him chuckling, so I turned my head to look at him. Even in the dark, I could tell he either had an impressed or amused expression on his face. "All the kids here adore him. You won't fit in too well if you don't."

"I'm outside at one in the morning smoking a cancer stick. I don't think I'd fit in very well anyways. Who are you?" I repeated my question.

"The name's Robbie Rotten."

"That can't be your real name." I stated. After a couple seconds, when he didn't react to what I had said, I decided to introduce myself. "I'm Adeline."

He nodded, then directed his attention elsewhere. I looked the man up and down to get a better idea of what he looked like. His clothes were quite odd, but they weren't as bright and colourful as everyone else's clothes. His were purple and red striped. The man was tall, at least a foot taller than me. It was clear he cared about how he looked, at least to an extent, because he had obviously put a lot of effort into his hair and he was even wearing makeup.

When I had finished my smoke, I flicked it to the grown and stepped on it to put it out. Robbie glanced sideways at me, but only for a second before he looked back at whatever he was before. "You should go home."

I kicked at the ground, but stayed in place and didn't say anything. Like me, Robbie stayed silent and still where he stood, and after a minute the silence got to be too much. "Maybe you're right."

I kicked off the wall and started to walk away, but his voice stopped me. "Hey, Adeline." I turned around and waited for what he had to say. "Have you ever heard the sound of a rubber ball breaking a window?"

* * *

Robbie insisted that his aim was horrible, so I'd have to be the one to throw the ball. He stood behind me, both hands on my shoulders. We were standing outside city hall, and there were lots of windows to choose from. "Just pick a window and throw." He told me. "Simple as that. But the second you do, we need to start walking away. Won't be long before the blue kangaroo comes by to see what happened."

I took a deep breath in, then let it out slowly. I focused on the upper right window. It wasn't the biggest one, but it was an achievable target nonetheless. I held the soccer ball tightly in my hands and began to count down. "Three…two…" I drew my arm back and threw it with as much force and I could. Sure enough, then sounds of shattering glass followed, and Robbie was immediately pulling me in the other direction. We weren't running or even speed walking, that would look suspicious. We made it almost out of sight before Sportacus showed up.

"Robbie? Adeline? What are you guys doing up?"

"I found her walking around alone, I just wanted to see that she got home safe." Robbie lied.

Sportacus looked skeptical, then directed his attention to me. "Why are you out at this time?"

"I went out for walks at this time in New York all the time! Less people out to bother you this time." I may have exaggerated, but it was still technically the truth.

"Well there's a window broken at town hall. You guys wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

I shook my head, and noticed Robbie doing the same. "I just got here, I'm not exactly looking to make any enemies just yet. And Robbie's been with me for the past ten minutes at least. Honest Sportacus, it wasn't us."

Sportacus yawned and nodded. "I'll worry about it in the morning I guess. Whoever did it is probably long gone by now." He yawned again. "And I need my sleep."

As soon as Sportacus was gone, Robbie gave me a pat on the back. "Nice work, Adie. You're a pretty good liar. You might even give me a run for my money."

And for once, the name Adie didn't seem to bother me so much.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: So this chapter is written a bit different and it's a bit shorter so I'm not sure how you guys will feel about it. Feel free to leave a review and let me know though! I really appreciate the reviews.**

"Oh my, Adeline. It is quite late. You should have been up by now." Bessie only had the best interest in mind for the girl, and this is what she had started to find normal. All of the other children in LazyTown would be awake by now usually, so it only made sense that Adeline should be too. However, she hadn't been aware of how late the girl was up. The curtains were drawn open and light flooded the room. "Come now, it's a beautiful day outside."

Adeline let out a loud groan and quickly put her pillow over her head, not only to hide from the light, but also to block out the sounds of her aunt's voice. She had little to no intentions on getting up anytime soon, and there wasn't anything her aunt could say that would change that. "I'm tired."

"If you don't get up now you'll _never_ be able to sleep tonight." Bessie warned. Still without intention on getting up, the younger girl lifted her pillow up just to see how late it really was.

"It's only ten o'clock!" As soon as she spoke the words the pillow went back to covering her head.

"Only?" Bessie wasn't accustomed to her niece's way of life, and vice versa. Adeline could already see it would become a problem if one of them didn't change. "All the kids are up and about already. You certainly aren't going to be making any friends in your sleep. Stephanie stopped by, she's downstairs wanting to know if you'd like to go play with her and the other kids."

Adeline spent some time pondering this. Did she really feel like associating with the type of person who was up this early on a daily basis? Though it seemed like everyone in town was, and maybe it was best for her to try to make a friend or two. Who knew how long she'd be here. "Fine, tell her I'll be down in ten minutes."

After saying that, Bessie left and Adeline stayed as she was. After a couple seconds she sighed and found the will power to drag herself out of bed. Making her way over to her closet where her luggages were, she began to rummage through them looking for something to wear. A lot of her shirts were faded plaid flannels that used to belong to her father. She pulled out a red one, as well as a sleeveless grey crop top to wear underneath and a pair of high-waisted skinny jeans. She had a red beanie that matched the shirt perfectly, but when she saw her reflection Adeline decided she didn't like how the red hat looked with her red hair. The reds weren't different enough or similar enough for her liking. Instead, she grabbed a grey beanie and went downstairs.

Stephanie was seated patiently, and smiled at Adeline when she got downstairs. She didn't smile back, because she was still exhausted and it was the other girls fault that she was woken up. When Adeline walked straight past her and into the other room to grab a few things, Stephanie thought it was a good time to speak. "Do you always wear jeans?"

She sighed and put a few things in her pocket. "Hello to you too." Adeline put on her docs and left, nodding for Stephanie to follow.

* * *

That day, Adeline learned one thing if nothing else; don't wear docs if you plan on playing soccer for hours. It was rather uncomfortable and it was starting to make her irritable, and the fact that it was probably around noon and she still hadn't had a cigarette wasn't helping anything. In fact, it might have been the sole cause of her irritability. In her mind all she could think about was holding a cigarette between her index and middle finger, how it felt so natural to hold, the weight of it, everything. She could imagine bringing it up to her lips and taking a long drag. She began tapping her fingers absent-mindedly on the pocket that had her pack of cigarettes in it. In her mind she was too busy trying to think of an escape plan to notice a soccer ball go flying right by her head, or to notice that at some point Sportacus had joined them.

"What are you kids up to?" The slightly-above-average hero asked.

Stephanie explained the current situation. We were playing soccer, girls vs boys, and the girls were currently winning by two points. Stephanie seemed to be very please by the fact that Adeline was in town because that meant there were six kids, making it possible to split the teams evenly.

"Speaking of even teams," she started. "Would you mind covering for me? Just for a few minutes while I go take a breather."

Adeline figured Sportacus being here gave her the perfect opportunity for her to get away for a minute, and she had every intention of taking advantage of it. Once Sportacus agreed to play for her, she quickly made her way away from the sports field. She walked towards the furthest end of the sports field by a tree and hopped over the wall. On one hand she thought it might be a good idea to go further, but the tree blocked her enough, and she could just sit down so the wall also blocked her. There was always the chance that the smell could make it's way over to the kids, but Adeline wouldn't be all that surprised if she found out the kids didn't know what cigarettes smelled like. In her opinion all of the kids were way too sheltered.

She pulled the pack out of her pocket and took out a cigarette, carelessly tossing the box to her side and lit the one in hand. With the first drag she could already feel the irritability start to leave her.

"Gotta love the scent of cancer in the morning."

The girl felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards into a smile. She looked up at the tall man she'd met the night before. He didn't look too well rested, and now that it was brighter outside she could clearly make out all of the makeup he was wearing.

"You put more of an effort into hiding in the middle of the night than you have now. They're less than a football field away from you."

Adeline rolled her eyes at Robbie, but knew he had a point. "I couldn't find it in me to care at the moment." In attempt to change the conversation, she spoke again. "Why aren't you asleep?"

"You know Sportaflop would flip if he saw you, and not just literally." It was clear that Robbie ignored her question, so she decided to repeat herself.

"Why aren't you sleeping? You look tired."

Robbie sighed. "Your stupid game woke me up."

"Apologies." It wasn't clear if Adeline was being sarcastic or not, so Robbie didn't respond and she kept talking. "I didn't want to play. Stephanie showed up and asked me to at early o'clock in the morning, and Bessie thought waking me up seemed like a good idea. I'm tired. I'd love nothing more to be sitting down, _inside,_ listening to music." She flicked the rest of her cigarette away and let out a deep breath. "It would be hard to sleep over how much noise they're making. Sorry we woke you up Robbie."

Robbie nodded and sat on the wall beside her. "Did Sportaloonie interrogated you about town hall?"

Again, Adeline found herself smiling. "Nope. He didn't say a thing. You?"

The man chuckled to himself and shook his head. "Haven't seen him. I just left to tell you guys to quiet down."

A couple seconds of silence passed, before a third voice found their way into the conversation. "Robbie, who are you talking to?"

Neither Robbie or Adeline had to look to be able to identify the voice as the pink girl. Not feeling like taking the energy to actually stand up, Adeline raised her hand to announce her presence. "He's talking to me."

"Sportacus!" Stephanie yelled. "I found Adeline!"

The other girl groaned, not exactly wanting to go back to playing soccer. If she had it her way, Adeline would just stay where she was, smoking and talking to Robbie. Instead she found herself sneaking the cigarettes back into her pocket and mentally preparing herself to deal with talking to all the kids and Sportacus at the same time.

"And she's with _Robbie Rotten_!"

Just according to that tone alone, Adeline figured she would also have some explaining to do. And she was right. That seemed to catch the attention of all the children and suddenly she had five voices all asking her questions at once. Robbie looked to be about as annoyed as she felt. It wasn't until Sportacus told them to that they all stopped talking.

"Well, I just came up here to tell you _brats_ to be quiet, so I guess I'll be on my way now." Before Robbie had a chance to turn around, Adeline gave him a pleading look. "But I guess I'll uh, show Adie here around town."

" _I_ already did that." Stephanie stated very matter-of-factly.

"Well you said you showed me everything and introduced me to everyone. You missed Robbie, and I'm sure you missed other stuff. Maybe a second tour won't hurt." Adeline tried not to sound bitchy, though that was something she rarely succeeded at.

She follow Robbie away, thanking him over and over. As they were leaving Stephanie mumbled something about Robbie hardly being a vital part of LazyTown, which caused both of them to roll their eyes. Sportacus scolded Stephanie, explaining to her that just because she didn't get along with him didn't make him any less part of the town.

"So, what do _you_ do around here for kicks?" Adeline asked him, figuring his idea of fun was different from the kids.

"Well, you're about to find out." He smirked and led the girl through a field, over towards a billboard towards the outskirts of town.


End file.
